Sliding door structure for tubs and the like



Nov. 14, 1933. J. N. WHITE SLIDING DOOR STRUCTURE FOR TUBS AND THE LIKE Filed Dec. 26, 1929 INVENTOR. JAMES H. WHITE.

BY WHITE/{6A0 6 706/.

m Pie M ATTORNEY. J

Patented Nov. 14, 1933 H SLIDING DOOR STRUCTURE FOR TUBS AND THE LIKE. V a I James N. White, Denver, Colo.

Application Dece er, 26, 1925 Serial No. 416,53 1

This invention relatestoY-doors for tubs and the like, and particularly to sliding door structures for tubs or containers constructed of wood or other material which changes inlbulk when subjected to difierent; conditions of moisture, and :the invention is particularly, though not-exclusively, adapted for use in wood stave cylindrical clothes containers used in laundry work.

.Anobject of the invention is to provide in an article of the class described, a slidingdoor struc- V ture, the operation of which will not'be affected by changes in bulk of the material=of whichthe article is constructed, resulting. from changes in the conditions of moisture to which .the article issubjected .iA further object is to the class described, a rigidly spaced double sided runway for-slidingdoor; e

Alfurther object is toutilize as part of'the rigidly spaced, two sided runway above men- "tioned,the metal bands commonly used. in binding together the staves of a woodtub of theclass described and a spacing membersuch as that nowin common use.

- With the foregoing and other objects in all of which will more fully ,appear from the following specification and claim and the accompanyingdrawing, the invention comprises. certain novel constructions, arrangementsand combinations of parts which will now be fully described and claimed and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawing: in which correspond.

ing parts are, indicated .by like characters throughout the several views, and in which Figure I is a view, in elevation, of a cylindri-" cal wood stave clothes container, of a type in common use in laundry work, but showing the installation of the present invention therein.

Figure II is a section-'on'line A-'-A of I Fig; I

integral.

Forthe purpose of illustration and description of the present invention there has been used in the drawing, aperforated wood stave clothes container of a general type in common use in laundry machines, but it will be .understood that the present invention will be equally applicable to any structure where a sliding door is desired in an articlewhich is subjected to changes in provide in an article of conditions of moisture and .which isconstructed v of material, the bulk of which will undergo changes with such changes in moisture condi- -tions, and"'with this explanationiin mindthe de- 6 scription of the invention will be given in terms of its application to the perforated woodstave clothes container, which is used as an illustra- 1 tion, it' being understoodth'at the-inventionas thus described canbe applied toother objects 65] of .theaclass above indicated, with such changes only as will beobvious to those skilled in the art, iniorder to apply the invention to such other 7 articles.- Y

-So far as the use of thisyinvention in wood in stave clothes containers in laundry machines .is concerned, it is recognized that metalsliding doors have be'enusedandare nowin use, but such doors slide upon the outer surface of the wood staves and the runways are iformedsimply by the encircling metal'bands with a spacing element .to space such bands from the wood staves opposite the doorways and for the required'gdis V tance to one side of the doorways to permit the sliding of the door. While such structures have go be'en in usefor a longtime. they are. entirely un= satisfactory because'the wood staves swell with the moisture and cause the doors to bind against the metal bands which form the outer side of the runways. As to clothes containers of thisclass 85 the presentinvention consists in inserting be-. I neaththe encircling bands and beneath the spac= ing element, a metal strip which is. embedded in the surface 'of-gthewood staves, butwhi'ch projects above such surface to an extent just sufii- 9 cient 'to raise the sliding =doorenough to allow. the swelling of the wood staves and still to avoid contact of theswelled woodistaves with the slid-- ingfidoor. -To applicants knowledge the objection to the use of sliding doors in the wood stave containerabecause of the binding of the doors by the, swelling of the wood-has existed for manyyears and, so far as applicant knows, without any successful effort to remedy the same, because such sliding doors which bind with the 1 swelling of the wood are still in common use as the best constructionknown to the trade.

The clothes container above referred to and illustrated in the drawing, has disc ends 1, around which are positioned wood staves 2, boundto- E5 gether by metal bands 3v the ends of which may be overlapped andriveted as at 4.

For the purpose of afiording access to the interior of the container the staves are cut away to form a doorway as at 5. In suchof the containers now in use as have sliding doors, the

bands 3 are spaced from the outer surface of the staves-2, by a spacing member in substance the same as themember. hereinafter referred to by the numeral 7, and this spacing member spaces 7 the band 3 away from the outer surface of the staves adjacent and at each end of the door' way and for a sufficient distance to one side of the doorway to permit the door to slide therein for substantially the width of the door, thus opening the doorway.

In the present invention the staves are grooved beneath the band '3 and beneath the spacing member to a width preferably substantially the same asthe width of the band 3 and ior a length substantially the same as the length of the spacingmernber, and in the groove thus formed there is inserted a metal strip 6 substantially filling said groove but of a thickness slightly in excessdesired distance. to one sideof the doorway, said runway consisting of .two metal .sidesp.one be.- ing the inner surface of the hand 3 and the other being the: outer surface of the strip-6, said two sides being rigidly spaced by themetal spacing member '7 positioned therebetween.

The door 9 is curved to conform to the outer contour'of the containeranditsends are posi- .tioned in the runways'formed asaboye described,

whereby the door: may be;.slidxin said curved runways, either tocover thedoorways 5, asishown at the left in-Fig. I, or to open the same as shown at the right in Fig.1. .The rigid spacing of the two sides of the runway. eliminates the binding of the edges of the doors .in the runways, there being no material either in the door" or in the runway which swells because of moisture, whereby .a. permanent or unchanging sliding fit ofth door in the runway is maintained.

The binding of .the door by reason of. the swell-- ing of the staves between opposite runways. is prevented by reason of the fact that the lower .or undersides of the runways are slightly above the outer surface of the staves, so that even-when the staves swell with moisture they willnot'contact with the undersides of the doors 9. By this construction, therefore, asliding door is provided which satisfactorily closes, the doorway in a wood stave container, butthe free sliding of which, inits-runways, is assured without. hindrance .or bindingv resulting from the-swelling. of the staves by moisture.

In" positioning the spacer '7 under the bands at the ends of tub, the spacer will be placed to one side, as clearly. shown in Figs; and V,

fastened in any suitablemanner.

thus leaving a runway 8 on one side of the spacer. In the case of intermediate bands, that is bands which lie between two sliding doors, the spacer.

'7 will be placed centrally of the band 3 and strip 6, as clearly shown in Fig. IV thus leaving a runway 8a on each side of the spacer '7.

It will be understood that the spacer '7 may be attached'to the strip 6 or to the band 3 by screws or rivets, as indicated in Figs. III and IV, or the spacer may be formed integral with a band or strip, the integration of the spacer and strip 6 being illustrated at Fig. V. a In constructing 'a wood stave container with the present invention incorporated therein, it will be found convenient to first position the strip 6 in the staves. The spacer 7 is positioned either as an integral part of strip 6 or is attached thereto or is applied as a part of or attached to band 3, according to the construction used. The bands 3 are drawn tightly around the container and The drawing of the band 3 around the container with theistrip 6 and the spacer 7 therebeneath, will bind the strip 6 and the spacer 7 and band 3 into .a unit .of rigid construction, affording a rigidly spaced runway 8, or. rigidly spaced runways 8a as the case may ha. and such. runways and the door 9 sliding therein; willbe unaffected by changes in bulk of. the woodstaves, resulting from. subjection of the staves tomoisture. r

t'will be noted that. in the. embodiment of this. invention illustrated in the. drawing, there will be. a slight triangular space .at each end of thespacer 7.. betweenthe wood stavesz2 and. the

spirit and scope of the. foregoing'specificationand the appendedclaimwill occur to those skilledin the art. a Y

I claim:

. In a circular container composed of pieces of material whose bulk is affected by moisture and having encircling bands adapted to hold said pieces together and having doorways .in'said containerbetweensaid. bands and doors for said doorways, the improvement comprising in combination strips beneath said bands and embedded in. said pieces but projecting slightly above the surface of said pieces and spacers between said bands and said strips, whereby said combined bands,=spacers and strips are adapted to both retain said pieces together and form runways for said doors spaced away from the'surface of said pieces sufi'iciently topermit said doors to slide in said runways over saidsurfaces without contact with said surfaces when said pieces are EX.- panded, said; bands, spacers and strips beingof material whose bulk is not affected by ,moisture.

JAMES, N. WHITE; 

